During Speech on Opioid Addiction, Trump Opens up About Losing His Brother to Alcoholism

In his remarks Thursday declaring the opioid epidemic a “national health emergency,” President Donald Trump talked about his older brother’s fight with addiction, which led to his untimely death in his early 40s.

“I had a brother, Fred — great guy, best-looking guy, best personality — much better than mine,” Trump quipped in a speech from the White House, drawing laughter from the audience.

“But he had a problem,” the president continued. “He had a problem with alcohol, and he would tell me, ‘Don’t drink. Don’t drink.’ He was substantially older, and I listened to him and I respected, but he would constantly tell me, don’t drink. He’d also add, don’t smoke. But he would say it over and over and over again.”

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Trump, 71, said to this day he has never had a drink and never smoked. “And I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it,” he stated.

Trump observed that his brother, who was eight years older, had a “very, very tough life because of alcohol … But I learned because of Fred. I learned.”

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Fred Trump became a problem drinker by his mid-twenties. Eventually, his struggle with alcohol ended up costing him his career as a commercial airline pilot, then his family and ultimately his life, The New York Times reported

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He died in 1981 at 43 from complications related to alcoholism.

Trump told CNN last year during his presidential campaign that he gave his children the same advice that is brother gave him: Don’t start drinking.

On Thursday, the president contended that one key to ending the opioid epidemic is teaching children early to stay away from drugs.

Echoing former first lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign of the 1980s, Trump said, “The fact is, if we can teach young people — and people, generally — not to start, it’s really, really easy not to take them.”

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“And I think that’s going to end up being our most important thing,” he continued. “Really tough, really big, really great advertising, so we get to people before they start, so they don’t have to go through the problems of what people are going through.”

Trump said that last year, almost 1 million Americans used heroin and more than 11 million abused prescription opioids.

He also shared the staggering statistic that 64,000 Americans died due to overdoses last year, which translates into 175 deaths per day, or seven per hour.

“Beyond the shocking death toll, the terrible measure of the opioid crisis includes the families ripped apart and, for many communities, a generation of lost potential and opportunity,” Trump lamented.

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“It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction,” the president proclaimed. “We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. We can do it.”

Trump’s strategy to address the drug crisis involves not only prevention, but also treatment and partnership with pharmaceutical companies to develop non-addictive pain killers.